New Haven man gets prison in crash that killed child

By Randall Beach

Published 5:27 pm, Wednesday, May 16, 2018

NEW HAVEN — Three years after a four-year-old girl was killed in an SUV crash, her father, Ross Stanley, has been sentenced to serve 41/2 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a child.

Stanley, 28, of New Haven, was driving the car on Interstate 91 near Exit 2 in New Haven on the night of Aug. 15, 2015, when it swerved across four lanes, hit a barrier and rolled over. Kamorah Stanley died after she was thrown from the vehicle.

State police said the father was speeding and had an elevated blood-alcohol level at the time. When he was arrested 12 months later, he was charged with first-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless driving, interfering with police, providing a false statement, operating a motor vehicle under suspension, operating a motor vehicle without a license, failure to drive in the proper lane, three counts of transporting a child without restraint, failure to use a seat belt in the front seat and three counts of risk of injury to a child.

Kamorah was not the only child ejected from the vehicle. Her eight-year-old brother also was thrown out, but he survived.

In addition, a five-month-old boy was in the arms of Rayna Green when police arrived on the scene, according to the police warrant. She was the mother of the three children.

Green, of West Haven, who also was arrested in August 2016, originally was charged with three counts of risk of injury to a minor. She pleaded guilty to reduced charges of three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and four months ago received a suspended prison sentence, with three years of probation.

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David Strollo said at the time of Green’s sentencing that Stanley was “the main culpable party” because he was the driver. During Green’s sentencing, Strollo told Superior Court Judge Melanie Cradle: “She paid the greatest price any woman can pay. She lost her child.”

Strollo, who also was involved with Stanley’s case, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment on the Stanley sentencing. Stanley also worked out a plea deal by which he agreed not to seek a trial and many of the original charges were dropped.

Cradle sentenced him to 12 years in prison, suspended after he serves 41/2 years, for the manslaughter count. She imposed a sentence of 41/2 years in prison for risk of injury to a child but made that concurrent with the manslaughter sentence. Stanely will face five years of probation when he is released.

According to the police warrant, investigators learned Stanley did not have a driver’s license at the time of the crash and his driving privileges had been suspended. Police also said he lied to them, claiming he wasn’t the one behind the wheel.

When police came upon the crash scene, the car’s roof was caved into the passenger compartment, windows were blown out and the rear hatch had opened but remained tethered to the vehicle, according to the warrant.

Several people, including Kamorah and her brother, were found in a large field of debris leading up to the SUV. There was blood on the scene and the boy was screaming in pain.

Some of the passengers in the vehicle told police they all had been drinking at a party before getting into the SUV. Green told police she remembered buckling her children before she fell asleep in the car. She woke up when Stanley was trying to stop the car from hitting the barrier.

Police said there was only one child-safety seat in the vehicle and it was found stuck under the dashboard by the front passenger seat, with no signs of it having been secured.

Stanley was represented by a public defender. That attorney did not return a phone message seeking comment on the sentence.